Fellow aviators
Many of you will be aware of the recent series of TV3 NewsHub programmes about the culture and the performance of managers within the CAA. These programmes, involving interviews of current and past CAA staff members, have exposed serious deficiencies relating to harassment and bullying by managers.
Clearly evident was the frustration of these CAA staff in not having their complaints adequately addressed by senior managers. Yet Nigel Gould, Chairman of the CAA Board, tried to “shoot the messengers” by questioning the motives of whistle-blowers (for which he earned a ministerial rebuke).
Over the years, we have had many anecdotal accounts of this toxic culture creeping outside the CAA and affecting its client base.
Now we learn that the MoT is providing an opportunity for people to provide feedback on the performance and culture of regulators.
If, in your interactions with the CAA, you have experienced harassment, bullying or commercial pressures such as threats to withdraw service over disputed invoices, now is your chance to bring those matters to the attention of the MoT.
In the normal commercial world, if you’re unhappy with the service (or the cost of it), you can choose to no longer deal with the business concerned. That option doesn’t exist for us in our dealings with the CAA - and one can’t help but think they know it.
The person handling these complaints is Grace Xu, Senior Advisor, Governance and Commercial, who has acknowledged that confidence in New Zealand’s civil aviation system underpins the substantial social and economic contribution made by the aviation sector. The ministry intends to take this information as insight to inform its ongoing monitoring of the CAA.
The social and economic contribution of GA has been blatantly disregarded over recent years and we have all noticed the effects that increased fees, levies and regulatory costs have had on a once-vibrant GA sector.
At a time when there is a shortage of pilots, employment opportunities for newly qualified pilots have reduced significantly. More and more of our smaller operators struggle to stay in business as they face a significantly higher regulatory burden with increased compliance costs.
The email address to contact the MoT is mailto:issues@transport.govt.nz
An opportunity like this does not present itself very often and we strongly encourage you to have your say.
To round off this bulletin...
Here’s a house-keeping tip: If you change your email address, please remember to tell us. If you don’t, our updates to your old address will bounce back and then we’ve lost touch with another supporter.
And finally, please don’t forget to check out the website at
www.caa.gen.nz from time to time.
Kind regards
Des and Brian
